Titanium plating (Electrodeposition OF titanium)

A. Hi Samson. We've published your posting and other readers are welcome to reply, but I don't think it's possible.

Luck & Regards,

A. Hi again Samson. You may surprise us, and I hope you do, but to my knowledge it is not possible to electrodeposit or electrolessly deposit titanium from an aqueous solution.

Luck & Regards,

"Electrodeposition of Alloys: Principles & Practice"
by Abner Brenner

on AbeBooks

or eBay or

Amazon

(affil links)

A. Hi again Samson. It seems to me the ethyl alcohol would have to be 100% because, for the 3rd time, aqueous electroplating of titanium does not seem possible with our current knowledge. You can certainly keep trying if you want, and I wish you success. :-)

But see if your university has Abner Brenner's Electrodeposition of Alloys, which attempts to reference and summarize all those early claims; and study the newer claims here on these pages.

Luck & Regards,

Thanks

A. There are 2 Russian patents on water-based titanium plating somewhere on that forum. Russians published at least 2 books on solvent based electroplating. Hope it helps and good luck!

A. Thanks, Goran! Two notes here though:
1. Yes, it is possible to electroplate some metals from molten salt baths and/or solvents which, due to electrolysis of the water into hydrogen and oxygen, cannot be plated from aqueous baths. However, these days PVD processes seem to me a simpler and more reliable route.
2. Many early Russian electroplating books, as well as some English-language ones, have been found to contain substantial factual errors about what the processes delivered. As Brenner notes, sometimes this wasn't a result of intent to deceive, but analytical limitations which misled optimistic researchers: metallic titanium wasn't deposited, rather titanium compounds were occluded in the deposit.

Unfortunately I have not learned Russian and cannot comment on the references which you have quoted here, but I'm not personally aware of any theoretical reason that would make it impossible to electroplate titanium from solvents. Thanks again!

Luck & Regards,

I happen to be able to read Russian, and, unfortunately, all this book says is that electrodeposition of titanium from aqueous solutions is difficult/impossible (thin coating has been deposited onto copper, platinum, and lead, but apparently only because an alloy of titanium+base metal formed on the surface).

It further suggests using titanium chloride solutions in ethanol (possibly with addition of a bit of toluene or acetone ⇦ this on eBay or Amazon [affil links] Warning! highly Flammable! ), other alcohols, ethers, or DMSO (apparently a solution of DMSO+ethanol works as well). However, even with these, only very thin coatings are mentioned. There's a bit of speculation that maybe having sodium and/or fluoride ions in the solution can be detrimental to the process, and further mention of trying other titanium salts (i.e. not chloride), before moving on to niobium (which is apparently even more challenging).

But, the main point remains: electrodeposition from aqueous solution is mainly a bust, and no handy recipe is offered.

A. Titanium is a very active metal which cannot be electroplated (out of a conventional aqueous bath). Cladding is a physical process where a skin of titanium is mechanically bonded to the substrate. But you are most likely talking about a vacuum deposited layer of titanium nitride.

A. By titanium coating do you mean titanium nitride? If so, it is not the same as cladding. Titanium nitride (TiN) is deposited by either chemical or physical vapor deposition. Cladding is more of a mechanical bonding process, and involves much, much thicker coatings. TiN and similar coatings are used extensively on cutting tools and wear components because the coatings are very hard (>2000 Hv) and very wear resistant. They are also used as decorative coatings on such items as faucets and door hardware because a wide range of colors, all the way from satin nickel to bronze, can be produced without changing the set-up (only the relative amount of process gases needs to be changed). Because the coatings are very thin, it is easy to maintain tolerances.

A. 'Body jewellery
Physical vapor deposition is often used to produce black implant-grade, autoclavable body jewellery. Biocompatible titanium coating is vaporized in an arc then electrically deposited on stainless steel jewellery.'

Copy-pasted from the bottom of the wikipedia article

A. Your inquiry is a bit vague considering the comments that it is a follow-up to. You understood that you cannot electroplate titanium onto these rods? So, are you looking for mechanical cladding, or for vacuum deposition (and, if so, pure titanium or titanium nitride)? Is there a spec to comply to that would give people an idea of the thickness and the proposed purpose of the coating? Thanks!

A. No. Titanium cannot be electroless or electroplated onto steel and cast iron. Titanium is too active to electroplate. However, some alloys containing a small amount of titanium might be electroplatable; I'm not sure. Regards,

A. Titanium can be deposited on steel or cast iron by PVD processes.

A. Titanium can be electroplated from water based solutions and also from non-aqueous solutions.

Recipe 1:
70 gm sodium metatitanate
30 gm sodium acetate
30 gm sodium hydroxide
1 lit. water, 30-70 °C, 1-5 A/dm2

Recipe 2:
100 gm Ti(OH)2
40 gm HCl
100 gm NH4Cl
water 1 lit.,pH 4-5,30-50 °C, 3-4 A/dm2

Recipe 3.:
30 gm Ti( in form of TiCl3 or TiI3)
200 ml toluene 0,02 % pitch(?)
800 ml ethyl alcohol
18 °C, 21 A/dm2,graphite anode

All from Russian book L.I.Kadaner:Galvanostegija (electroplating handbook), Kiev 1964.

---

You never cease to amaze me with your reference material, Mr. Budija! So I really am curious -- but these formula don't seem to offer any exotic solution to the problem of plating so active a metal, and I have to wonder about their validity. I hope someone tries them and gets back to us, but there has been erroneous stuff published in plating textbooks from time to time and my guess is this is one example :-(

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey

A. Very late response to Mr.Mooney! I am just metalwork restorer, and once upon a time I have this book in my hands. Sorry for my [limited] English.

Goran Budija
- Cerovski vrh Croatia

A. Hi, D. You can't electroplate (in the conventional sense) titanium. The hydrogen in the water of solution will be reduced long before the titanium will be reduced.

It is not impossible to deposit titanium or any alloy of titanium in some fashion; in fact, titanium sputtered stainless steel sheet is commercially available -- but please explain what you are trying to do because conventional electroplating is impossible. Maybe it's titanium nitride vapor deposition (gold colored finish) that you are looking for?

A. Electroplating or electroless plating - no chance. However, try vacuum deposition technologies.

A. What type of titanium plating are you looking to do on stainless? We supply titanium plated SS sheets (Type 300 series).

Thanks,

A. Titanium electroplating recipes:

I. 70 gm sodium metatitanate
30 gm sodium acetate
30 gm NaOH
Water-1 lit, 30-70 °C, 1-5 A/dm2

II.100 gm Ti(OH)₂
40 gm HCl
100 gm NH₄Cl
1 lit water,pH 4-5,30-50 C,3-4 A/dm2

from L.I.Kadaner: Galvanostegia (Electroplating) , Kiev 1964.

"Titanium: A Technical Guide"
by Matthew J. Donachie

on AbeBooks

or eBay or

Amazon

(affil links)

Gentlemen:

Reading the full list of responses reminds me that the proper answer might reasonably be, "We cannot do it TODAY, but tomorrow the technology may allow it to be done." I would have agreed with all those who said it cannot be done, until one person steps up and says that it can. I am definitely going to file those ideas permanently.

Thank you,

A. Sorry for being a little late on this response folks. However, some useful discoveries were made in the mean time, so you could thank me for that!

The original question regarding Ti was not about Ti at all (when I checked into it last time, couple of months ago.) Some people think (or call) titanium nitride or other decorative compounds of Ti as Ti. The person was looking for gold and other color coatings. So when someone asks for Ti plating next time, let's have our question ready, what color is it?

Hi Ryan. Personally I don't think Goran's formulas have any chance of working, but no one so far has tried them and told us the results ... unless you count Abner Brenner in his Electrodeposition of Alloys, which completely discounts those sources, noting that it may not have been deliberate deception, the researchers may have been fooled by tests for titanium that found occluded titanium oxide dusts.

 
Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey

A. Sorry Della, you cannot plate titanium out of a water based bath. It can be done with some very special equipment from an organic based bath, but it is expensive and limited to much smaller parts than a fence. You can basically forget welding any plated part. weld and then plate. Touch ups like brush plate on weld over plate are ugly!
Virtually anything other than galvanize or plastisol or vinyl coating or paint/powdercoat are going to be very expensive [for a fence], even in China.

A. Jim W

I was involved a few years ago with a Canadian group that was working on a wet chemical plating system that could deposit titanium (as well as aluminum), but I'm pretty sure they're a long way away from production work. Titanium can be vacuum deposited, so Della may be calling that a plating, as the term ion plating is often used for vacuum deposition processes. However, your answer holds even more so for ion plating -- no way to touch up the weld areas, and even if you could you'd still have to put the entire object in the vacuum system. If you're going to do that, assuming that such a vacuum chamber exists, you might as well coat after welding.

Jim Treglio - scwineryreview.com
PVD Consultant & Wine Lover
San Diego, California

A. Jim T.-- You are correct. I got sidetracked into thinking of aluminum plating. The correct reply should have been that there are no commercial methods of electroplating titanium on any metal.

James Watts
- Navarre, Florida

A. Most of us think that it cannot be done, but if you read earlier letters in this thread, you will find possible recipes. If you try it, let us know if it worked for you.

A. About titanium plating, I know that some peoples are actually working on a titanium plating process in organic media, at room temperature. Will it work properly ? Do coatings made with this process offer performance enough for industries requirements? I don't know. However, as far as I know, preliminary tests were promising.

Moreover, as with Ted, that Titanium plating bath recipe presented on that discussion list left me speechless. This is the first time that I'm seeing a titanium plating bath made with water. My curiosity have been tickled and I will surely try it.

A. Aluminum is electroplated commercially. Siemens patented this back in 1978. The formula they present in the patent uses toluene as one of the constituents. It seems to me that the issues with electroplating aluminum and titanium are similar - so why shouldn't the solutions be similar?

Thanks David. I'm familiar with the fact that aluminum is being plated commercially. Although aluminum and titanium share the similarity of being more electronegative than hydrogen, 'similar' is context sensitive, and apparently they're not similar enough to be plated out of the same or 'similar' plating baths, although as Daniel says, they're working on it.